Whooping cough numbers still a concern

Hunter New England Health says incidents of whooping cough are down this year, but the number is still a concern.

There have been 421 confirmed cases of the disease so far this year, 130 down on last year.

A free vaccine for whooping cough is available for infants, schoolchildren and mothers of new born babies.

Program Manager for Health Protection, Peter Massey says the disease is potentially life threatening for young children.

"Unfortunately we're still seeing many cases in the Hunter region, many of the cases are in school age children and in fact notifications have been received right across the age groups," he said.

"The vaccination program's been working working really well because many of the younger children are not getting into hospital with whooping cough as we used to see years ago but there's still plenty of whooping cough about."

Mr Massey says many of the cases have been school aged children.

He says while cases of whooping cough are down, the number is still too many.

"The protection you get from the vaccine does wear off over time, but the good news is on time immunisation with young kids protects young kids from ending up with the complications," he said

"That's why we're encouraging parents to make sure their kids are immunised on time, keep coughing adults away while the vaccine kicks in and that way even though there will be cases ongoing in the community the most vulnerable will be protected."